PROMAT Delivers...

Press Testimonials
and Statements of fact.

What are the police forces around the world saying?

“Promat stores 26,000 images of volunteers and can easily be integrated with other
forces. The systems start-up cost is only a tiny proportion of what we currently
spend every month on live parades! Once we built our database with PROMAT, the cost
is nil.”
Inspector Barrie Thompson, ID Bureaux project manager

“Before Promat, A third of all parades were abandoned because of last-minute volunteer
dropouts. Promat has doubled our number of identity parades and saved hours of police
time for us – equivalent to 13 officers being put back to other duties. In our first
year, we saved about £80,000 in fees!
West Midlands Police – Britain’s 2nd largest police force

OPERATIONAL COSTS

Time and money, overworked officers, stressed out witnesses, nervous victims, volunteers
that don't show up

The traditional criminal ID parade system can take weeks or even months to happen.
Learn about Video ID efficiency savings.

A successful first year using state-of-the-art technology has helped police
in Devon and Cornwall to save time and more than double the number
of identification parades. In April 2002 the Force installed new equipment in its
four custody centre's to ensure the complicated process of holding ID procedures
ran more smoothly. The new system, known as PROMAT, uses video images of volunteers
collected from around the country. Currently the database holds more than 12,000
images accessible at the touch of a button.

A suspect is filmed while he or she is in custody. The footage of the suspect is
mixed in with that of a number of volunteers from the database, and the compiled
film is then shown to the witnesses. Before the arrival of PROMAT, officers would
have to conduct expensive and time-consuming parades to identify suspects. They
had to find volunteers who resembled a certain description and then pay them to
attend the parade at a police station. One third of all ID parades were aborted
at the last minute, usually because one of the parties couldn't attend.

This caused great inconvenience to all concerned, not least of all the witnesses.
This year the number of parades held is expected to be around 1,500 - double
that of last year. The Force has saved 2,970 days of police time previously
spent organising parades, this equates to 13 officers being put back to other duties.

The money saved in volunteer fees in the first year alone is £80,000,
more than covering the cost of the system. Torquay's Identification Inspector Rod
Munro said that the first year using PROMAT had been incredibly successful with
ID procedures now taking days to complete rather than weeks and sometimes months.

Holding ID parades used to be fraught with logistical problems, not least in finding
suitable volunteers. With PROMAT they are there on tap, he said. Additionally, when
the witness knows that the suspect is not in the room or the same building, this
alleviates their anxiety and helps provide a more comfortable experience for the
victim.

Surrey Police is using new sophisticated technology in its fight against
crime with the introduction of a video ID suite to replace the traditional line-up
parade. Surrey has taken advantage of new legislation, which allows the police to
use video ID parades as the primary means of identifying suspects. The recently
purchased PROMAT system contains a database of over 15,000 individuals and compares
suspect details with like images to produce a video ID parade in a matter of minutes.

Since the new ID Suite has been in Force-wide operation at Woking Police Station
it has already had some positive results. On the first weekend it was running, a
man was arrested for a series of burglaries, his image was shown to witnesses via
a video ID parade, he was positively identified and charged and appeared in court
on the following Monday. Inspector Geoff Phillips from the ID Parade Suite said:

"This new system has truly revolutionised the way we work in the ID Suite.
We now offer a quick, efficient service with parades taking place soon after an
incident occurs and while the image is still fresh in the witness memory. In the
past, ID parades could take up to 2-3 months to organise, as each volunteer had
to be contacted and screened for suitability. This long time delay made it very
difficult for the witness to remember suspect details clearly".

Temporary Chief Inspector of the Criminal Justice Reform Programme, Paul Sacha commented:
The PROMAT system has resulted in substantial cost savings for
the Force. The total cost of the equipment, together with the refurbishment costs,
at £30,000 will easily be recouped within a year. I would like
to take the opportunity to thank all those people who have given up their time to
volunteer for ID parades and in doing so have helped us bring more offenders to
justice. We are not disbanding this method entirely as there will still be occasions
when we need volunteers if we don't have people of a certain category contained
within the database.

Other benefits of the new system:

Witnesses have said they feel far more comfortable with the new system
of viewing suspects on a video screen rather than viewing a live ID parade, as it's
less threatening.

If a witness is not able to come in to a police station to look at the images, for
example, if they are housebound or in hospital, police officers can take the system
to the witness via a laptop to view images.

The ID parade can take place at any time of day to suit the witness, it is not reliant
of getting a group of volunteers together. Often, ID parades had to take place in
the evening due to the work commitments of the volunteers.

Better use of manpower as fewer officers are required to run the ID parades, which
means that resources can be deployed elsewhere.

Suspects can now have their image recorded while they are in custody so there is
no need for them to return to the police station to take part in a parade.

Victims and witnesses of crime will not have to come face to face with suspects
in ID parades thanks to a computer system now being used by Jersey police. A new
video identity parade system uses a database of more than 26,000 images from around
the British Isles.

It means suspects will have a digital photograph taken of them, which is then shown
to the witness while mixed in with a line-up of seven other faces from the database.
Police also say the new system should result in a fairer parade for suspects.

Inspector Jeremy Crow said it will make the process less daunting for victims of
crime. He said: "I'm sure it will be of great advantage use to a witness or, in
particular, a victim of crime in that they have no contact with a suspect at all.
"At most, they are seeing a video image of that person and don't even have to be
in the same room as them."

Traditional identity parades are to be phased out by Britain's second largest police
force in favour of a digital video alternative. West Midlands Police aims to save
hundreds of thousands of pounds each year by collating a database of "ordinary"
people who can be used time and time again in a parade.

Traditional "line ups", which take up to two weeks to arrange and cost the force
£600,000 a year, are to be replaced by a video system, called PROMAT. It
will store footage of volunteers on a computer database and can compile separate
images into a "seamless" ID line-up, viewed by a witness on a large video screen.

West Midlands police hope that the initiative will be able to be used for 70 per
cent of identification parades by Christmas. Officers have begun approaching the
public in shopping areas with a video booth, where volunteers are paid £10 to have
their picture taken. This can then be used any number of times in the future to
be scanned into a "parade"' with a picture of a suspect. Not only does it save money,
it also removes the problem of getting a dozen volunteers for every line-up.

Insp Barrie Thompson, the ID Bureau project manager, said the digital profile matching
system would store 26,000 images of volunteers and could be integrated with other
forces. The system has a start-up cost of £30,000, a fraction of the bill
West Midlands police currently spends every month on live parades. Insp Thompson
said: "If you take away the cost of the rooms and the officers' wages, traditional
line-ups can cost £200 each, but with PROMAT once we have built up our database
the cost is nil."

The Jamaica Constabulary Force on Monday afternoon launched a new Video Identification
system designed to speed up the holding of identification parades and protect witnesses.
Head of the MIT, ACP Les Green said the new system, should improve the
effectiveness and fairness of identification parades.

"It doesn't alter the basic principles for holding an identification parade, what
it does is utilize technology and instead of having to organize a conventional line-up
where we have to find the possible participants, what we have is those participants
stored in a database so it's fairer for the suspect and its fairer for the witness
and it should also speed up the process tremendously,"

"So instead of having to find persons of a similar appearance to a suspect whenever
we find a suspect they should already be in the database and there would be some
similarities that we can select and have an electronic parade," said ACP Green.

In a conventional identification parade, witnesses are asked to pick a suspect from
a line of individuals. But under the new system the police will record images of
the suspects as well as images of other people who look the same as the suspect.
The witness then picks from that line-up of images on a computer.

According to the police, conventional identification parades have been tough, because
they have trouble finding people to take part in the line ups. They say witnesses
are also exposed when they go to police stations to identify suspects. The police
say by using lap top computers they can go to witnesses instead of having
them come to the stations.

Between March 25 and April 21 last year, two officers from the Metropolitan Police
Service in the UK visited Jamaica and conducted training for six Police Sergeants.
They in turn have so far trained over 157 key police personnel in the use of the
PROMAT Video Identification system. Two stations, the Kingston Central and Linstead
Police Stations have been equipped with the new system.

New technology has allowed Devon and Cornwall Police to double the number of identity
parades carried out and has saved hours of police time. The new system,
known as PROMAT, uses video film plus an image database. Officers used
to have to find volunteers for identity parades.

Before its arrival officers had to find volunteers who resembled a certain description
and pay them to attend. Now the police have a database which holds 26,000 video
images of volunteers. The suspect is photographed while he or she is being held.
The footage of the suspect is then mixed in with that of a number of volunteers
and the film is shown to the witness.

Fees saved

Before its arrival, a third of all parades were abandoned at the
last minute because of people dropping out.

Since being introduced, the new system has meant twice as many ID parades
going ahead.

The force says police hours saved are the equivalent to 13 officers
being put back to other duties. It has also saved about £80,000 in fees.

The new equipment has been installed at four custody centres around Devon and Cornwall.

The force said of its use of technology: "Devon and Cornwall Constabulary is an
organisation driven by information and intelligence and we have invested considerably
in the technology to manage this valuable resource. "Such technology has allowed
the force to make significant long and short-term savings, by producing
efficiency gains and releasing money to support front-line policing in local areas."